arttravelbug

The Art of Influence: Propaganda Postcards from the Era of World Wars Museum of Fine Arts, Boston To January 21, 2019 Propaganda of the era appeared on posters, postcards and stamps "Leonard Lauder was first drawn to postcards as a boarding school student in Miami Beach. Lauder, the 85-year-old chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder Companies... stuck to collecting. Before long, he was buying 100-year-old postcards from a stamp dealership. Today, he owns about 130,000 postcards. Much of the collection is a promised gift to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston." "[Collecting] cards taught him how easy it can be to fall prey to a dangerous message. 'If you look at the imagery today, you would say, "How could they have been duped by it?" But they were,' he noted. 'What drove me to do this book was that most people did not realize the banality of the propaganda and how effective it was. That was… the Facebook of the time...'" [ read mor...

In mulling about for ideas to kickstart my creativity, I've started thinking about going on a writing retreat. I know these exist, but don't know much more, so I set out to research where one might travel to participate in a writing retreat. As its an interest of many, I thought I'd share my discoveries . Here are 5 writing retreats that made me want to pack my bags: You can write sitting where Hemmingway did at Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center Writers' Retreats , which are held in Hemmingway's Barn Studio in Piggott, Arkansas, USA. I liked how budget-friendly this one was, and how they change their coaches with each session. The Tuscany Writing Retreat is held in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy creative commons image bramhall/Flickr The Tuscany Writing Retreat , with Cary Tennis, is situated in the medieval hill town of Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy and is timed to coincide with two local festivals. Oh, still...

Picasso's Kitchen Museu Picasso, Barcelona To September 30, 2018 "An exhibition on the subject of Picasso’s kitchen? Why not? There is nothing at all incongruous in the idea, because cooking is a subtle revelation of Picasso’s art: painting, engraving, sculpture, ceramics, poetry and theatre. What is more, we should not neglect the role of the restaurant as a meeting place for the avant-gardes, from the Quatre Gats tavern in Barcelona to the cabaret Au Lapin Agile on Montmartre, where the bohemians of the time and Picasso’s little entourage would share a table." From the exhibit catalog "The exhibition will include the exceptional collaboration of chef Ferran Adrià who will introduce a dialogue between the artist’s creative process and contemporary culinary art. The Mauri gallery– which is the gallery of the museum devoted to contemporary art- will house an intervention from the internationally acclaimed chef, who will showcase ‘Sapiens”, his methodology fo...

~~~ "Traveling along the Côte d'Azur from Nice by train gives flirtatious glimpses of the Mediterranean at every tilting bend. (We) tumble out at a deserted station and walk across the tracks to the entrance of Les Roches Rouges. The hotel’s structure is partially built into a cliff face so we’re ushered through its airy lobby and onto its upper terrace to be met by a stunning seascape. The staff, perhaps reading our hungover expressions, immediately present us with deliciously sticky orange Campari cocktails while our bags are taken to our room..." [ read more ]. ~~~ Situated midway between St. Tropez and Cannes, Hôtel Les Roches Rouges re-opened in the past year, transformed from a former 2-star hotel into a 5-star cliffside oasis. "A savior came in the somewhat unlikely guise of 42-year-old Valérie Grégo, founder of the French boutique-hotel chain Les Hôtels d'en Haut. 'When I first came to check the place out I saw this two-star hotel, and th...

David Bowie Is Brookyn Museum To July 15, 2018 Creative Commons image eliasroviello on Flickr "'David Bowie Is' is a museum exhibition that thinks it’s a rock concert. And it has toured the world like a rock star. Beginning in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum in 2012, it has 'played' to rave reviews and long lines in 11 museums on five continents for the past five years. Bowie himself had hoped the exhibit would start in London, where he was born, and end in New York, where he lived and, in 2016, died. Now, 'David Bowie Is' arrives at the Brooklyn Museum for the final stop on its world tour. John Schaefer spoke to the curators of the both the original London exhibition and this newly-expanded New York edition..." [ listen to WNYC's interview ]. "It's a stunning tour of Bowie's world – whatever your level of Bowie fascination, it's impossible to walk more than a few inches without being dazzled. It has previousl...

Santa Bibiana is a small Baroque style, Roman Catholic church in Rome devoted to Saint Bibiana, a Roman Virgin and Martyr. The church is home to a statue of the saint, created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1626, his first public religious commission. It shows St. Bibiana holding the palm leaf of martyrs, standing next to the column to which she was to be martyred. The sculpture has been in the news lately, after it's return from its first-ever loan to an exhibit, at Rome's famed Borghese Gallery, no less. The piece had only be moved once before, to protect it during assaults during World War II. In the process of returning the statue to her niche in the church, the ring finger on her right hand snapped off. While the art movers were devastated, much has been made of the clean break; had the digit been pulverized, it would have difficult to repair. Alas, the art restorers have done their work, and the digit has been reattached. If you've never seen a Bernini sculptur...

Monet and Architecture National Gallery, London To July 28, 2018 La Gare Saint Lazare, Monet “Monet is only an eye” claimed Paul Cézanne, “but my God, what an eye!” "Only an eye? This exhibition reveals the inner soul of Monet. It shows that his love of nature is not mere escapism. It is a craving for human survival in an age of growing industrial inhumanity..." [ read more ]. Museum at Le Havre, Monet "A brilliant colourist, a master of light, the joyous she painter of water lilies; we are all familiar with the painterly style of Claude Monet. But the National Gallery’s latest exhibition introduces us to a different, but equally innovative side of this modern master. The result is simply mesmerising. Dedicated to a select number of Claude Monet paintings of architecture, the exhibition explores the father of Impressionism's lifelong but previously unexplored preoccupation with structure. From the early Normandy paintings of the 1860s to his evocati...